Manipulation and Inspiration

Here are other photos I took (around my house and in my yard), manipulated and printed out to bring for inspiration at the Sketch-In.  I just couldn't decide to go with toys or nature???  But in the end, I guess I really chose both by choosing Happy Crabby!

An orange butterfly net on a blue sleeping bag.  (Complementary Colors, pattern, line)

Broken sticks and twigs laying on the ground.  (Texture, pattern, highlights, purity of nature)

Lime green leapfrog pad and hot pink princess blanket.  I have 2 princesses!! (Complementary colors again, pattern, shape)

Tree Trunk, which takes on a human form to me (Texture, shape, line, balance)

Green bush, but I didn't notice the circle in the middle until I manipulated it (Texture, pattern, unity, space)

Trying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary on this artist holiday,

hannah

More Doughnuts!

Doughnuts!!!  On fabric.

My first real fabric design-

Do you remember My Doughnut Beauty?  It's a short poem I wrote back in November about yes....doughnuts!

Well, it has spilled over into my fabric!  I am slowly learning control and how to manipulate the fabric.  I see how addicting this can be!!! 

Hence therefore, this is the fabric I chose to send to the Fabric Exchange Reader Challenge hosted by Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine.

I sent off 8 fabric swatches sized 9x9 inches with a business card attached to each one.  In a few months I will receive 8 other fabric swatches from other readers!  It's going to be exciting to see what comes in return!  Stay tuned!

the excitement of another reader challenge on this artist hoilday-

hannah

Happy Crabby

My children's toys are spilling over into my artwork!  And what silly fun it is!!! 

Finally finished the crabby!

Materials used:  pencil to sketch it out, acrylic paint to finish.  Actually, I decided not to outline with my black colored pencil, like I normally do.  I wanted it to look a little different by actually painting the shadows.

I think the eyes make it pop off the page.

It was as fun to paint as it looks!

I tryed to be a bit haphazard with the application of the paint to continue the fun feel of the piece.

This was the picture I used for this painting...

Colorfully silly on this artist holiday-

hannah

Testing, Testing 123

I am trying to expand my artistic endeavors to include surface design.  I do have some experience with silk screening from my high school days but I wanted to learn how to paint on fabric whereas the hand of the fabric is affected very little.  So, I purchased some textile paints in traditional colors (shown above) and the lovely fluorescent colors below!

I drew squares with a black fabric pen on pfd cotton.  Next, I applied the paint for samples.  Later I will cut and glue them in my fabric swatch notebook to refer to later.

After testing each color, I had to start playing and playing I did!  Below are some of my first feeble attempts at fabric painting.  This is one piece of fabric from the beginning to the end and then a small project I made with my fabric....

I decided to cut the fabric and try a small nine patch, one of my favorite traditional quilt designs!  After putting the blocks together, I added some batting and free motion quilted around the edges of the blue and a tiny bit of pink. 

I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  To finish off the edges, I experimented with a technique from Lyric Kinard's book- sew all the way around the edges and cut a small slit in the center to turn inside out. 

This is also some of my pink hand dyed fabric.

Now I just need to finish off the back and I will probably make it into a brooch!

I will be posting more examples of my fabric painting experiments soon- 

Still sooooo much to learn on surface design on this artist holiday-

hannah

Sketch-In

 Sketch-In

I was able to attend my first sketch-in this morning put on by Mrs. Lyric Kinard!  Among many things, she is a contributing artist for the Sketchbook Challenge that I have joined this year.  Check out her site for lots of juicy tidbits, tutorials, her book and lots of beautiful artwork. 

She hosted this sketch-in and I had a fabulous time!

Lyric suggested we started with an exercise, a blind contour of our hand.  Now, I haven't tryed a blind contour in a very long time and I just LOVE my results!  It was such fun!!!

Blind contours are drawing an object by not looking at your page at all and not lifting your pencil, until you are finished.

It was anything goes after that and I had brought some photos for inspiration and other ideas I was ready to try out. 

This colorful crabby for example...

I took a picture of my children's toy crabby and played with the tint and saturation until I got really vibrant colors.  The photo is at the top right corner of this photo.

Here's Lyric and Mary!  Mary is expanding her creative arsenal to include drawing and what better way than with Mrs. Lyric. 

Here I am working away on my deliciously colorful crabby.  And you may be wondering how it ties in with this month's sketchbook challenge theme - spilling over?  Well, my children's toys are spilling over into my artwork, of course.

Thanks to Lyric for hosting this creative sketch-in!  It was great talking with you and Mary and sharing our creative ideas together!

sketch-in, sketch-out and in-between on this artist holiday-

hannah



Ready, Set, Go!

All ready for the sketch-in tomorrow!

It was tough picking which paints I could "live without" for this sketch-in.  Pink was definitely coming!  Pencils, sharpies, stamps, brushes, tissue paper, paints, apron, gesso, brayer, scissors, ruler-

did I leave anything out? 

(I decided not to bring the sewing machine this time!)

all packed and ready to go on this artist holiday-

hannah

Pollock, Mondrian and little me

     To say Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) are vastly different in their artistic approaches is most certainly an understatement.  Pollock, threw paint with his chaotic motions on the canvas, while Mondrian had such structure and order on his canvases.  Though they seem vastly different on the surface (pun intended), they are both considered part of the abstract art movement and both came to achieve non-objectivity in their respective works.  To those who are not familiar, being non-objective refers to a work of art not having a recognizable subject matter.   
     Mondrian, first caught my eye during a high school art trip to New York.  It was fascinating, at that time, for this country mouse to see the big city and to see his artwork was most influential on my own.  It captivated everything I did in my art class the rest of my high school career.  Every now and then I find myself drifting back to his works and all he created.  We are all familiar with his geometric paintings of mostly primary colors, black, white and gray.  I am mesmerized at how straight his lines were and have made several attempts over the years to duplicate.  Quite a challenge, even with tape!

     I go through all this to share my combination of their two styles during this month's sketchbook challenge- Spilling Over 

More specifically, Pollock spilling over Mondrian! 

When attempting Pollock's style, I had paint everywhere; my face, my arms, probably my hair!  It was great!!

Closeup of the primary colors Mondrian used quite often in his later work.

Pollock did countless drip techniques on his canvases.  After all, his work varied around 8 feet!  I couldn't bring myself to totally cover up my Mondrian work underneath.

So, do you want to see my sketchbook page before Pollock spilled over it?  Check it out below....

Materials used; Canson mixed media sketchbook, acrylic paint and a black colored pencil!



References I used:  http://www.artlex.com/  (online art dictionary);

                             Modern Art written by Sam Hunter,
                             John Jacobus and Daniel Wheeler  (college art book);

                             Mondrian written by Benedikt Taschen

                            (book I got when I went on the New York high school art trip) 

            Sharing some of my favorite art history on this artist holiday-

hannah

Whale of a Tale



I am very fortunate to share my creativity on Sunday mornings with children ranging from 1st to 4th grades.  I have started teaching sunday school!  And it's not your grandmother's sunday school class.  There are 4 stations; cooking, games, storytelling and my personal favorite...ART!  I, of course, (wo)man the art station every other month or so.  Basically, you reiterate the lesson through various art projects.  The kids are very receptive and participate very well. 

So, for the first month I taught, they made origami whales, referring to Jonah, of course!  All the grades did very well with this folding paper experience.  My plan was to have the children donate a whale or two and I would create a larger project with what they provided.  By the month's end I had quite a few to make something with!!!  Now, what to make....

I decided to put them together in a wreath-like fashion.  I actually used a sour cream lid as the base!  First, I drilled 2 small holes on the lip of the lid to add to string too later for hanging purposes.  Next, I applied blue art tissue paper to cover the lid.  After the tissue paper had dried I started gluing whales at the positions of 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock .  Then I  continued filling in the gaps between those positions until I had used up all the large whales!  Once those were in place I then glued the small whales on top of the larger whales.  I think this really helped it look more uniform.

One child was familiar with origami and donated a crane she made!  That became the center of this whale wreath.  I also added moss to finish it off.

I had fun fur and other yarns for some to be able to hang their whales and a few of those were donated, hence the random yarn.  I didn't want to take it out, it helps make the story!

We are currently getting ideas from the children who they would like to give it too.  It's a special piece that each child can look at and see the corrulation of their efforts going to make someone else smile! 

sharing my creativity on this artist holiday-

hannah


p.s. i love origami!!

Out of place

Hello to new followers!  Thanks for your comments!

Not too very long ago, a friend of mine gave me a pack of watercolor postcards and I decided to just have some fun with them.  I felt this one was the best and it became the thank you card I sent to her. 

Thanks Linda!

postcard size

watercolors and sharpies

another one.... postcard size

watercolors, sharpies, colored pencils and pastels

Which reminded me of these ATC's I sent to another friend of mine a while back.  These are very non-objective.  It was more about playing with line and trying to create a texture and depth.

ATC size

watercolors, colored pencils and black pen

And that brings us to this out of place piece.  I have been researching some on one of my favorite old masters Piet Mondrian, so maybe that explains the urge to get my pastels out and create something that does not involve circles!  I survived it, without making circles, that is!

Cardstock paper, pastels

It was really a quick sketch...

Slowly, I am learning to play and experiment more again.  I think the sketchbook challenge has helped some with that.

not all circles on this artist holiday-

hannah



Spilling Over

Sketchbook Challenge

Theme:  Spilling Over



I have a few other ideas in my mind for this theme.  But for the first page, I finally decided to go straight to the obvious!  I am really enjoying the brightness of the pink, green and yellow mixed with gray of all colors.  Once I got to the painting stage I could feel myself really getting into the process.  This is such a rewarding artistic exercise, I would recommend to anyone.

Materials used:  Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook, pencil, acrylic paints, and a black colored pencil.

unique color combinations splashing the page on this artist holiday- hannah

No Photographic Proof

With my 2 year old in tow (babysitter busy) I decided to go to Lyric Kinard's lecture this morning at the Cary Public Library.  With the risk of meltdowns and tantrums, my only goals were to buy her book and introduce myself.  And maybe catch some of her lecture.  In case you are not familiar with her work, she is an award-winning quilt artist and the author of:

 Art + Quilt Design Principles and Creativity Exercises. 

http://www.lyrickinard.com/

Goals achieved!!!  She was soooo nice and friendly and thought my 2 year did quite well!  What I was able to hear of her lecture (I was just outside the lecture hall in the children's section for parts) was very inspirational, fun and lively.  I purchased her book and she was kind enough to sign it while my daughter was cligging to my shoulder.  I didn't have my camera in my hand, it was in my bag and my daughter was starting to melt, people all around; it just didn't work to get that photographic proof!  But I did make her a small pantry sketchbook (that she liked!) and yes I also forgot to take a picture of before we left.  So, I only have proof that she signed my copy of her book, see photo below. 

It may have not gone exactly as I planned, but I got to go and introduce myself, get her book and meet a very talented artist.  This made my week!  Thank you Mrs. Kinard!

meeting and greeting on this artist holiday-

hannah